Page:Literary studies by Joseph Jacobs.djvu/34

 It is essentially the spiritual life of her heroes and heroines which interests the writer. It is characteristic that she has introduced the religious life as a leading motive of the novel. Dinah Morris's spiritual experiences and exhortations, Maggie Tulliver's conversion by Thomas à Kempis, even Mr. Bulstrode's wrestlings of the spirit, are themes which only the deepest spiritual sympathy could have handled adequately. Not that she is deficient in the lighter qualities of the novelist's art. No one has described English scenery with more accurate touch or displayed a more Shakespearean sense of humour. Mrs. Poyser and Bartle Massey are unequalled creations. In the delineation of children's character she stands almost on a level with Victor Hugo. Altogether, in range of sympathy, in nobility of tone, in fertility of reflection, and in subtlety of insight these novels of memory are unique in the history of fiction. Opinion will differ as to their comparative merits, and each has its distinctive qualities. Yet it is probable that Adam Bede will always retain a certain supremacy; there is a freshness of tone as if the writer were luxuriating in new-found powers. The unsavoury motif of Felix Holt places it out of competition; Silas Marner, finished as it is, is on a smaller scale; and the concluding part